In the flat landscape of the Kalahari, a grouping of hills stands out, rising with rocky cliffs and caves. Here, you can see ancient rock art from as early as 100,000 BCE, depicting animals, human figures, and geometric shapes—some of humanity's earliest artistic expressions. These incredibly significant paintings are part of the natural environment, making them vulnerable to fading from sunlight, erosion from sand and wind, and damage from water and minerals in the rock.
This film explores the ancient rock art of Tsodilo Hills, Botswana, one of the world’s most significant archaeological and cultural heritage sites. Experts discuss the artistic, cultural, and historical significance of these images, while a San guide shares his personal connection to the site, underscoring its enduring spiritual and cultural relevance.
With immersive cinematography and deeply informed perspectives, the film examines how these paintings serve as both visual records and enduring symbols of ancestral knowledge. The documentary also highlights ongoing conservation efforts, revealing how local communities and preservation specialists work to safeguard this fragile legacy against environmental and human impact.
Part of a broader initiative to reframe The Met’s Arts of Africa galleries, Africa’s Cultural Landmarks foreground local experts and reflect community stewardship to deepen understanding of a diversity of cultural landscapes.
About Tsodilo Hills, Botswana
Rock art sites across southern Africa were authored by multiple peoples inhabiting the region from as early as 100,000 BCE. Primarily fine-line images made by hunter-gatherers ancestral to today's San communities, there are also later finger paintings made by Khoi language-speaking herders and isi-Ntu speaking farmers who have interacted and intermarried over past 3,000 years. The translation of animals and other elements from the natural environment into visual representations allowed early inhabitants to transmit important messages and abstract ideas to their descendants and other visitors to these sites. The striking creations at the UNESCO World Heritage site of Tsodilo in the Kalahari Desert portray animals in a number of different techniques, speaking to change over time, and likely to many peoples' interactions with the hills and surrounding landscape. The sustained artistic attention lavished upon Tsodilo underscores its powerful position within the surrounding environment. The highest area in Botswana, it is a dramatic exception to the otherwise flat landscape, as well as the only source of water for miles in any direction. More than pictures of everyday life, the expressive, graphic imagery attached to this natural outcropping mediates the threshold between the living and ancestral realms for the Ju/'hoansi who currently associate with this site, as well as their forebearers.
Africa’s Cultural Landmarks is produced by The Metropolitan Museum of Art in collaboration with World Monuments Fund.
