Animated motifs
Journal of Music Archaeology December 11, 2025 Margarita Díaz-Andreu, Joshua Kumbani
Dance in southern Africa was closely tied to music and sound, typically performed outdoors, and held social significance beyond entertainment. This article examines dance scenes depicted in rock art on the Zimbabwean plateau, using established criteria to identify iconographic representations and cross-referencing them with ethnographic sources. The analysis reveals that ritual dances, often gendered and involving altered states of consciousness, are central themes in the rock art. The research provides a preliminary framework based on existing literature and underscores the need for further fieldwork to uncover additional sites and explore the relationship between dance scenes and their landscapes.