First Stencilled Rock Art Discovered in Mpumalanga Shelter

Researchers have identified southern Africa’s first known stencilled rock art at the La Rochelle shelter in Mpumalanga, South Africa, revealing two small human-like figures created using purpose-made templates rather than direct brushwork. David Pearce of the University of the Witwatersrand and Kiah Johnson of the University of Cambridge detailed the find in the South African Archaeological Bulletin, marking a significant departure from the region’s traditional painting methods.

Discovering Stencils at La Rochelle Shelter

The La Rochelle rock shelter sits near the town of Carolina, measuring approximately 30 meters long and 5 meters deep. Highlands shelters in this area are typically shallow, holding scarce and faded paintings. However, the walls here display fine-line brush paintings of eland, hartebeest, small antelope, and human-like figures. Tucked among these traditional works are two red, stick-like figures standing about 9 centimeters tall. Unlike the surrounding brush or finger paintings, these shapes show bare rock inside red paint with a halo of tiny specks, lacking any hard outline.

The site has a long history of documentation that initially missed the unusual markings. Anna Steyn recorded the shelter in 1995, and Mduduzi Maseko surveyed it again in 2020. Neither researcher noted the stencils. reported that the team sharpened their photographs with D-stretch software in the LDS colour space to reveal the faint figures clearly.

Stencilling Discovery Reveals Rare Fabricated Templates

Stencilling involves blowing or splashing liquid paint around an object to leave a bare shape on the rock. While common in Ice Age European caves, China, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Australia, the method had never been recorded in southern Africa. Purpose-made templates are exceptionally rare in rock art, making the discovery unusual beyond southern Africa, Pearce noted. Artists likely held custom-shaped items against the stone surface. Because the silhouettes match nothing natural, creators had to fabricate them beforehand from materials such as beeswax, clay, carved wood, bone, basketry, or cut leather.

Dating the artwork remains a challenge. The stencils do not overlap any other paint on the walls, removing the stratigraphic clues researchers usually rely on to sequence prehistoric compositions. Size offers no shortcut either, as regional paintings generally sit well under life-size, meaning a 9-centimeter figure fits comfortably within local artistic conventions. The shelter features a concreted floor, wooden pews, and an improvised pulpit where local communities occasionally hold church services, showing how modern uses have altered the historic space.