{"id":17316,"date":"2016-12-06T12:44:00","date_gmt":"2016-12-06T17:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=17316"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:30:07","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:30:07","slug":"carving-creativity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=17316","title":{"rendered":"Carving Creativity"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"silvia-tomaskova_edited\"
At Wildebeest Kuil in Northern Cape, South Africa, Silvia Tom\u00e1\u0161kov\u00e1 sets up to take a picture of one of the best known engravings at the site \u2014 an elephant with a rider. Mystery surrounds the engraving, as elephants do not live in this region. (photo courtesy of Silvia Tom\u00e1\u0161kov\u00e1)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A<\/span>s far back as 10,000 years ago, the San Bushmen \u2014 some of South Africa\u2019s earliest hunters and gatherers \u2014 practiced a cultural tradition of carving images into small boulders. Some, perhaps those new to the craft, would use a variety of objects to peck away at the stone. Others created images of animals and geometric patterns by scraping the rocks with sharpened stones. Those with more skill used stone tools or possibly diamonds to produce finer, more detailed\u00a0engravings.<\/p>\n

Boulders were just the beginning. They also filled rock shelters, cliffs, and overhangs with vivid, painted images of human figures, animals, and geometric shapes. Next to Australia, South Africa is home to the largest number of painted rocks in the world \u2014 a fact that, for the last 50-plus years, has drawn researchers to study these keys to the lives of ancient\u00a0humans.<\/p>\n

While these vibrant paintings are the subject of much debate among rock art researchers, UNC<\/span> anthropologist Silvia Tom\u00e1\u0161kov\u00e1 studies the engravings, also called \u201cpetroglyphs,\u201d and spent the summers of 2013 and 2014 in South Africa\u2019s Northern Cape documenting them. \u201cThe engravings, in comparison to the paintings, are very ordinary. They lack color \u2014 and people are much more seduced by color than by something that\u2019s carved. But there\u2019s so much <\/em>to be learned about\u00a0them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond the \u201cwhy,\u201d Tom\u00e1\u0161kov\u00e1 hopes to discover how <\/em>the images were made and what the learning process must have been like. \u201cI am interested in creativity as something that can be described in many different ways, but always needs to be taught, learned, and most importantly, practiced,\u201d she says. \u201cIt does not emerge suddenly in its perfection and beauty for everyone to admire. So I study these engravings as that \u2018way of making\u2019 \u2014 not just the art but also the people who made it and their\u00a0communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The road less\u00a0traveled<\/strong><\/p>\n

Antelope graze from afar as Tom\u00e1\u0161kov\u00e1 crouches among the open plain of rocks about 20 kilometers outside the city of Kimberley in South Africa\u2019s Northern Cape. She holds her Canon EOS60D<\/span> close and focuses on the small boulder at her feet. She squats to get a better look at it and begins the photo process. It takes about an hour, as she moves inch-by-inch along the rock to capture images from every\u00a0angle.<\/p>\n

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Tom\u00e1\u0161kov\u00e1 collected images from 240 different engravings at this site in South Africa\u2019s Northern Cape, just 20 kilometers outside the city of Kimberley. She\u2019s confident she could collect at least 50 more from this one location, but hopes to visit other rock art sites during the summers of 2017\u00a0and\u00a02018.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The engraving looks like a swirl \u2014 a common symbol. But this one, in particular, has the body of a lion attached to it. \u201cSo the swirl was no longer a swirl, but the head of a lion,\u201d Tom\u00e1\u0161kov\u00e1 says. \u201cIt\u2019s clever. It\u2019s funny. A geometric pattern suddenly becomes an animal. Somebody saw the potential of that swirl \u2014 enough to turn it into something\u00a0else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before focusing her efforts on rock art, Tom\u00e1\u0161kov\u00e1 studied Eastern European stone tool technology from the Ice Age. But when she received the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation\u2019s New Directions Fellowship \u2014 which helps academics in the humanities and social sciences acquire training outside of their own areas of interest \u2014 in 2010, she decided to take her research to South\u00a0Africa.<\/p>\n

While there, she visited well-known painted rock art sites like those in Eastern Cape Province and the Southern Drakensberg Mountains<\/a>. Although the paintings are beautiful, the engravings are what intrigued her \u2014 with her background in stone tools, she could study them to determine how they were made. At the time, this was an uncharted research endeavor in the\u00a0field.<\/p>\n

After receiving additional funding from the Mellon Foundation<\/a>, Tom\u00e1\u0161kov\u00e1 returned to South Africa in 2013 and 2014. She focused on South Africa\u2019s Northern Cape \u2014 a relatively unexplored region, home to most of the country\u2019s rock\u00a0engravings.<\/p>\n

Each etching uses one of three techniques, according to Tom\u00e1\u0161kov\u00e1. A handful of them are made with a pecking motion, \u201clike somebody was learning how to create it for the first time.\u201d A variety of tools can be used to imitate this style. Others look as if they were scraped with a fine, sharpened stone. And some use what Tom\u00e1\u0161kov\u00e1 calls a \u201chairline technique.\u201d These engravings are more intricate and were probably made using a pointed stone tool or\u00a0diamond.<\/p>\n

Engravings like the lion are made in stages, sometimes with different techniques. This suggests it was possibly made by different people. \u201cThe swirl is more pecked and the body looks scraped,\u201d Tom\u00e1\u0161kov\u00e1 says. \u201cSome of these engravings are made and left alone. Then somebody else \u2014 or maybe the same person \u2014 comes back and adds to\u00a0it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The collection at Tom\u00e1\u0161kov\u00e1\u2019s site in the Northern Cape may have been made over the course of many years. \u201cI\u2019m trying to figure out if it\u2019s many people \u2014 many generations \u2014 making this art over a long period of time. So it might not be this giant art session that everyone is doing all at once, but rather a history book spanning decades or even\u00a0centuries.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tom\u00e1\u0161kov\u00e1
Tom\u00e1\u0161kov\u00e1 collected images from 240 different engravings at this site in South Africa\u2019s Northern Cape, just 20 kilometers outside the city of Kimberley. She\u2019s confident she could collect at least 50 more from this one location, but hopes to visit other rock art sites during the summers of 2017 and 2018. (photo courtesy of Silvia Tomaskova)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Creating a virtual\u00a0exhibit<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Tom\u00e1\u0161kov\u00e1 returns to UNC<\/span>, she uploads all of her images into a program called RealityCapture<\/a>, which allows her to create a 3-D image of each engraving. She has images of 240 engravings \u2014 about 70-100 for each one. The process is time-consuming, but once each 3-D image is built, she can view the entire rock and continue to study these engravings from\u00a0afar.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach time I build one of these 3-D images in the program, I see a different pattern of making,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m still in the middle of processing them all, but from what I\u2019ve already observed there are four or five similar styles used by the\u00a0San.\u201d<\/p>\n

While in the Northern Cape, Tom\u00e1\u0161kov\u00e1 stays in Kimberley. Since the rock art site is about 20 kilometers away, she makes the 30-minute drive each morning and night to continue her work. She is lucky to have access to a car. Most of the locals travel by foot, and lack the resources \u2014 and the time \u2014 to visit this part of their cultural\u00a0heritage.<\/p>\n

Beyond trying to understand the creative process behind the rock engravings, Tom\u00e1\u0161kov\u00e1 wants to bring the creative culture of the San people to the community of Kimberley. Inspired by the 3-D program she uses to conduct her research, she\u2019s working with the local McGregor Museum to create a virtual exhibit of the rock art site. This will give the public and nearby schools an opportunity to see the engravings whenever they\u00a0want.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of the locals don\u2019t even know about the engravings,\u201d Tom\u00e1\u0161kov\u00e1 shares. \u201cAnd this will allow them to see it in a way that\u2019s better than a textbook. They can see it as if they were\u00a0there.\u201d<\/p>\n

A changing\u00a0culture<\/strong><\/p>\n

Just last month, Tom\u00e1\u0161kov\u00e1 received a National Geographic Society research grant that will allow her to return to South Africa during the summers of 2017 and 2018. While there, she plans to visit two different locations in the Northern Cape and capture images of the engravings\u00a0there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could probably get images of 50 more engravings at the same site I visited last time,\u201d she says. \u201cThere are literally hundreds of engravings that need to be recorded \u2014 boulders and boulders and\u00a0boulders.\u201d<\/p>\n

She plans to continue exploring the creative minds of the San people through this art in hopes that it will shed light on the importance of including art in culture. \u201cI wish more people were given the opportunity to do art,\u201d she says. \u201cI fear that we are increasingly so focused on the vocational training of our students and giving them skills that we forget that one of the things that makes us human is the ability to\u00a0create.<\/p>\n

\u201cI argue that everyone has the potential for creativity,\u201d she continues. \u201cWe have to encourage more people to be curious about creativity; to be patient with their clumsy efforts and learn from others; and to learn tolerance of imperfection and respect for sometimes hard work that may lead to results much later.\u201d Even 10,000 years\u00a0later.<\/p>\n

Silvia Tom\u00e1\u0161kov\u00e1 is a professor of anthropology and chair of the Women\u2019s &<\/span> Gender Studies Department in the UNC<\/span> College of Arts &<\/span>\u00a0Sciences.<\/em><\/p>\n

By Alyssa LaFaro, Endeavors magazine<\/em> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UNC anthropologist and women’s and gender studies chair Silvia Tom\u00e1\u0161kov\u00e1 studies South African rock engravings to unearth the creative process of some of the country\u2019s earliest 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