Time, Color, and Sound: Revisiting the Rock Art of Didima Gorge, South Africa

This article explores the abundance of rock art in the Didima Gorge where 3,909 paintings were documented in seventeen rock shelters. It is proposed that the richness of the gorge's rock art is associated with its acoustic properties, which may have established the gorge as a significant spiritual place for the San hunter-gatherers. In making this correlation, the article explores Pager's (1971) comment that the Zulu name for the gorge means “The Reverberating One.” It is proposed that the word “Didima” may be an adaptation of the/Xam word “!gum” meaning “to roar” (P.E. Raper, 2010, personal communication). The relationship between the rock art and acoustics may have been established when the hunter- gatherers intensified their occupation of the northern uKhahlamba-Drakensberg about 3,000 years ago, and then became even more powerful around 2,000 years ago with the emergence of shaded polychrome paintings. The need to undertake in situ acoustic research in Didima Gorge and other valleys in the uKhahlamba- Drakensberg is emphasized