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  TOURSNEWSROCKART JOURNALCONTROVERSIESFEATURESREADING ROCK ARTBOOKSSITE OF THE MONTHNORTH EAST CAPE- N.E. Cape and San- MapPRIME ORIGINSCONTACT US 
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North-East Cape and the San
Iron age farmers of the Nguni and Sotho groupings arrived in the area around 1650 and contact with the San hunter-gatherers was sometimes amicable and sometimes conflict-ridden. However the final extermination of the Southern San in this area occurred in the late 1800's through colonialist penetration of the area and savage violence directed against the San. The San of this area were exterminated but they left a rich heritage, painted rock art in thousands of overhangs and caves in the area. Some of this art represents the high point of the San painting tradition, beautiful shaded polychrome paintings on large panels.
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Three imposing mountain ranges penetrate the North-East Cape. They are the Stormberg in the South and the Witteberg and the Southern Drakensberg in the East. All are especially dramatic in the winter when their peaks are covered with snow. The San hunter-gatherers lived here for thousands of years but it became one of the last refuges of the Southern San in the face of relentless persecution by colonialists.
George Stow, was the first researcher to copy the rock art of Southern Africa in the period 1850-1880 and to record some of the history of the San people of this area. The period in which he conducted his research coincided with the last years of the San in the Eastern and North-Eastern Cape. While his work does not meet the standards of historical work of today, he does give us a sense of these last years of the San people. He describes dramatically in his book, The Native Races of South Africa, how San groupings took refuge in the caves of the these mountains but were still hunted and killed here by both Sotho groups and colonialist commandos. According to Stow the last known San/Bushman artist of the
area was shot in the Wittebergen. He had ten small horn pots hanging from a belt, each of which contained a different coloured paint. So in this poignant incident, a painting tradition which had spanned thousands of years came to an end.