The Tsodilo Hills (Tswana: Lefelo la Tsodilo) are a UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS) located in Botswana, Southern Africa. This site includes rock art, rock shelters, depressions, and caves. It was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001 because of its important religious and spiritual meaning to local people and its record of human settlement for thousands of years. UNESCO estimates there are more than 4,500 rock paintings at the site. The area includes several main hills called Child Hill, Female Hill, and Male Hill.

Geography

There are four main hills in the area. The tallest hill reaches 1,400 meters above sea level and is one of the highest places in Botswana. The hills are often called "Male" (the tallest), "Female," "Child," and an unnamed small hill. These hills are located about 40 kilometers from Shakawe and can be reached by a well-maintained dirt road.

Between the two largest hills, there is a campsite that is managed and provides showers and toilets. This campsite is near the most famous San rock paintings at the site, known as the Laurens van der Post panel. The panel is named after a South African writer who first described the paintings in his 1958 book The Lost World of the Kalahari. A small museum and an airstrip are also located near the campsite.

Archaeology

People have used the Tsodilo Hills for painting and rituals for thousands of years. UNESCO says the hills have 500 separate sites that show thousands of years of human life. The rock art in the hills is connected to local hunter-gatherer groups. It is thought that ancestors of the San people created some of the paintings and lived in the caves and rock shelters. There is also evidence that Bantu people made some of the artworks. Some paintings are as old as 24,000 years ago.

Rhino Cave is at the north end of the Female Hill and has two main walls with paintings. The White Rhino painting (which gives the cave its name) is on the north wall, and a Giraffe painting is next to it. Excavations found many stone tools on the cave floor. This cave does not have ostrich eggshell, bone tools, pottery, or iron, but some mongongo shell pieces were found in layers from the Later Stone Age.

Charcoal found in the cave has been dated to the African Iron Age, Later Stone Age (LSA), and Middle Stone Age (MSA). Most stone tools from the LSA were made from local materials like quartz and jasper. MSA tools in the cave are mostly projectile points, which were often found in different stages of making, some finished and some not.

Most paintings in Rhino Cave are on the north wall and are painted in red or red-orange, except the rhino, which is white. Around the rhino and giraffe are many red geometric shapes. On the opposite wall, there are grooves and depressions in the rock, possibly made with hammer stones or grindstones from the LSA period.

White-colored rock art at Tsodilo is linked to the Bantu people. Many white paintings are in the White Paintings Rock Shelter on the Male Hill (there are also red paintings there). The white paintings show animals, both wild and domestic, as well as human-like figures. These figures are often shown with their hands on their hips. A few are on horseback, which suggests they were painted no earlier than the mid-1800s, when horses were first brought to the area.

Dates from charcoal, ostrich eggshell, bones, and other materials range from the MSA to the LSA. There is also evidence the site was used during the historical period, as a nylon button and European glass beads were found in the top layers. LSA layers had hammer stones, grindstones, bone tools, and small stone tools. Pottery, ostrich eggshell beads, and mongongo shells were also found. MSA layers had stone blades and other stone tools.

The Tsodilo Hills have many red rock paintings found throughout the area. In Rhino Cave, some red paintings appear older than the white rhino painting. These red paintings are usually linked to the San people.

A rock shelter on the northwest side of the Female Hill has depressions in the walls, along with red paintings of cattle and geometric shapes. Charcoal dating shows the area was used at least 30,000 years ago. Excavations found LSA stone tools and Iron Age artifacts.

Pottery in the deepest layers dates to the first century and is connected to the oldest stone tools found in the area. Mongongo nut shells were also found in these layers, making them the oldest ever discovered in an archaeological site.

The Tsodilo Hills include many archaeological sites. Two of these, Divuyu and Nqoma, have evidence of Early Iron Age metal tools. Excavations found pieces of jewelry and tools made from iron and copper, including bangles, beads, chains, earrings, rings, pendants, chisels, projectiles, arrowheads, and blades. These sites share similar metalworking techniques but have different styles. Slag and tuyères suggest Divuyu and Nqoma may have been places where iron was smelted, making them rare examples of Early Iron Age metalworking in southern Africa.

Cultural significance

These hills are important in culture and religion to the San people of the Kalahari. They believe the hills are a place where spirits of the dead rest. These spirits are thought to bring bad luck or problems if someone hunts or causes death near the hills. Tsodilo is also a topic of discussion about how the San people lived in the past.

Many local groups near the Tsodilo Hills have stories about the past that involve the many painted caves and rock shelters at the site. Stories passed down through generations often mention the Zhu people, a San group, who used rock shelters for protection from weather or for rituals.

One story says that hunters would go to rock shelters to speak with ancestors if a hunt failed. They would ask for a successful hunt the next time they went hunting. When the hunt was successful, they would return to the shelter and cook food for their ancestors. In some of these places, there is little or no evidence of fire.

However, there are areas where rituals, like prayers for rain, are still performed. Older people in the area remember using some rock shelters as campsites when they were young. The Whites Paintings rock shelter may have been used as a camp during the rainy season as long as 70 to 80 years ago.

The San people believe Tsodilo is where all life began. The art there was made by the descendants of the first people. The hills, trails, and grooves in the earth are seen as the paths and footprints of the first animals, moving toward the first watering hole. A natural water source at Tsodilo, near the Female Hill, is used for collecting water and for rituals. It is considered sacred and has been used by many people for cleansing, healing, and protection.

Claim of earliest known ritual

In 2006, a site called Rhino Cave became widely discussed in the media after Sheila Coulson from the University of Oslo claimed that 70,000-year-old objects and a rock shaped like a python’s head were found there. She believed these items showed the earliest known human rituals. She also said the cave’s artwork, including images of a python, elephant, and giraffe, supported her view that the site was used for rituals. However, some archaeologists who studied the site in 1995 and 1996 later disagreed with her findings. They argued that the carved marks (called cupules) described by Coulson might not all be from the same time. Some marks were fresh, while others had a thick layer of dirt and minerals, suggesting different ages. Nearby caves also had similar marks, but those did not look like animals. Scientific dating methods, such as radiocarbon and thermoluminescence tests, did not support the 70,000-year-old claim, showing the site was much younger.

Archaeologists also noted that the painting thought to be an elephant was actually a rhino. The red painting of a giraffe was no older than 400 AD, and the white rhino painting was even more recent. Experts believe the red and white paintings were made by different groups. They criticized Coulson’s claims as incorrect, saying she projected modern ideas onto ancient times and created a misleading story. They pointed out that Coulson ignored red geometric paintings found on the cave walls, which were also present.

Regarding burned tools from the Middle Stone Age, archaeologists said using materials not found nearby was normal. They also disagreed with the idea that no ordinary tools were found, explaining that many scrapers (common tools) were present and that tool-making evidence was clear. They also said there was no proof that the cave’s "secret chamber" was used by San shamans or for rituals.