Angola's Rock Art
ORBIS AFRICA — REPORT/ISSUES No. 1–2
Angola’s Rock Art
By Bárbaro Martínez-Ruiz • Orbis Africa Advanced Research Center, Indiana University
Orbis Africa Advanced Research Center • Indiana University
1229 E. Seventh Street, Bloomington, Indiana 47405, United States
E-mail: bamart@iu.edu • Tel: 812-855-1056
Website: orbisafrica.org/orbisafrica
Introduction
This research report delves into the cultural and historical significance of rock art in northern Angola, focusing on three primary sites: Tadi dia Lombo, Tadi dia Muingu, and Lovo (Nsenzele). These sites offer valuable insights into the artistic, social, and spiritual practices of the communities that created them. By analyzing rock art and its context, this project aims to contribute to understanding Angola’s rich cultural heritage and its relevance to contemporary society.
Throughout northwestern Angola, hundreds of archaeological sites lie scattered, adorned with thousands of enigmatic symbols painted into caves and shelters, and engraved onto rocky outcrops and boulders. These symbols encompass a diverse range of simple designs, including geometric, anthropomorphic, and zoomorphic shapes. Some symbols are strikingly visible in breathtaking landscapes, while others are concealed within historic stone structures or burial mounds. These designs date back over two and a half millennia, created by both the ancient inhabitants of this region and its current inhabitants.
Over the past two years, the fieldwork team from Orbis Africa Advanced Research Center has developed a novel approach to deciphering and comprehending the original purpose of these competing visual elements that form part of the archaeological landscape.
In recent decades, the Orbis Africa Advanced Research Center team has made significant strides in the discovery and documentation of rock art in northern and southern Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This growing interest has led to a remarkable surge in the number of carved stones documented in the past two years, with a quadruple increase in the number of sites and depictions. This remarkable progress has garnered attention from professional archaeologists and African art historians based in European institutions.
The search for Angola’s Rock Art (OAARC) has attracted professional archaeologists and academics seeking new recording technologies like photogrammetry and laser scanning. These technologies could bring new attention to the search and reveal the latest information about when and how rock art was used.
The survival of OAARC hangs in the balance due to political landscapes and environmental challenges. Human and natural threats have caused the deterioration of many rock art panels. Creating an accurate record of all rock art is crucial for researching, protecting, and managing this fading connection to our historic past.
The Angola’s Rock Art (OAARC) website and database, hosted at https://orbisafrica.org/orbisafrica/orbisafrica/welcome.html, marks a significant step towards this goal. A trained team of locals has been gathering information for the pilot project since 1999 as part of the northern Angolan Rock Art Project, sponsored by the Tanner-Opperman Endowed Chair in African Art at Indiana University and The Watch Hill Foundation in the United Kingdom.
The Orbis Africa organization incorporated and built upon the research goals of the Schools of Anthropology and Archeology at Oxford University and the Art History Department at Indiana University. The database’s geographical coverage is limited to research conducted in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Namibia, and South Africa. The effective methods from the initial project were used to gather information that will guide management decisions aimed at balancing access and education with the conservation and protection of this fragile resource.
About the Author
Bárbaro Martínez-Ruiz
Tanner-Opperman Chair of African Art History in Honor of Roy Sieber, Indiana University
Senior Research Associate, School of Anthropology & Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford
Research Senior Fellow, Hutchins Center for African & African American Research, Harvard University
Honorary Distinguished Professor, Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town
Martínez-Ruiz earned his B.A. from the University of Havana (1994) and his Ph.D. from Yale University (2004). He is an art historian with expertise in African and Caribbean artistic, visual, and religious practices, whose work challenges traditional disciplinary boundaries and examines varied understandings of—and engagement with—“art” and “visual culture.” He has taught at Havana’s High Institute of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Stanford University, and the University of Cape Town (as department head, 2013–2017). Awards include the College Art Association Alfred H. Barr Award, the Leverhulme Visiting Professorship (Oxford, 2017–2018), the Mark Claster Mamolen Fellowship (Harvard, 2020–2021), and the Creative Capital Award (2022). His publications include Kongo Graphic Writing and Other Narratives of the Sign (Temple University Press, 2013) and The African in the Making of Cuban Art (Diasporic Africa Press, 2024).
What Is Rock Art in Northern Angola?
People use the term “rock art” to describe prehistoric or historic carvings cut into the surface of rocks or painted on cave and shelter walls. This art is found across Africa and other regions, depicting human figures, animals, and objects such as weapons, boats, or houses. Unlike any other place in Africa, abstract representations dominated Northern Angola’s rock art scene, making it exceptional. The simple cosmogram mark is the most prevalent symbol worldwide in ancient rock engravings.
Three primary contexts in northwestern Angola contain historic rock art:
- Outcrops and earth-fast boulders (“landscape” or “open-air” rock art)
- Monumental structures associated with pre-colonial funerary architecture (“funerary art”)
- Medium-sized stones used in domestic, ritual, and informal-economy contexts (e.g., tobacco grading, purification baths, cassava processing), sometimes integrated with lagoons and river platforms
Some carved stones and paintings may have undergone multiple reuses—starting as part of an outcropping rock before being quarried for a stone circle or cairn and ultimately used as building material. Orbis Africa researchers have recorded around 5,000 carved surfaces or “panels” in northwestern Angola, and new examples are almost certainly awaiting discovery each year. Many more examples are known in southern Angola.
Motifs and “Styles”
The most prevalent design element in rock art is the simple cup-mark—a circular hollow, typically 3–10 cm in diameter and 2–5 mm deep. In northern Angola, cup-marks often merge to form intricate motifs, including chevrons, triangles, and lozenges. “Cup-and-ring” motifs, rectangles, diamonds, penannular forms, spirals, “keyholes,” and “rosettes” also occur. Less common motifs include pregnant women, firearms, animals, human processions, hunting scenes, stars, and comets. Artists arranged motifs in regular, geometric, and symmetrical patterns across outcrops, boulders, cliffs, and rocks.
Carvings were created with metal and stone tools; pecked cups could be linked into grooves. At Tadi dia Lombo and Tadi dia Mpungi (2023–2024), excavations revealed zoomorphic representations and red-ochre handprints.
How Old Is It?
Precisely dating rock art is challenging. Similarities between Central African rock representations and handprints suggest early settlements around 2,500 years ago, aligning with migration from the northwest; some traditions may be older. Relative dating draws on superimpositions (later motifs carved over earlier ones) and depictions of technologies (weapons) and cosmological observations (constellations, comets) such as those at Lovo. The “cup-and-ring” tradition in Central Africa may date to 8,000–7,500 years ago; “funeral mounds” art to 1,000–800 years ago.
Excavating Rock Art
Archaeological investigations around panels in northern Angola and southern DRC reveal substantial activity associated with carved rocks and panel clusters. While pavements and large scatters of tools are notably absent, pits containing burnt animal and human bones and other charred remains indicate complex ritual contexts. Carbon-14 dating is needed to refine chronological relationships. The visual record suggests rock art’s role in activities tied to initiatory societies and religious rituals (sacrifice, feasting, offerings).
Connections
Comparisons across Central African traditions point to both shared and localized developments. The geographic breadth—from the Atlantic interior to rainforest highlands—suggests diffusion of ideas and/or independent elaboration. Determining whether Kongo rock art developed in isolation or through migration-linked diffusion remains an open question.
The Meaning of Rock Art
Interpreting prehistoric art as “information” is fraught. The limited, recurring symbol set implies a shared vocabulary, but direct meanings are embedded in cultural logics distinct from contemporary Kongo practices. Regional variations complicate interpretation, with spirals more frequent in eastern zones and cup-marks concentrated nearer valleys and rivers. Placement and motif choices likely track Kongo-related cultural specificities, geology, survival, and record incompleteness.
The Search for Meaning
Most carvings documented since 1999 occur on outcrops in villages and remote rainforest. Carving turns space into place, materializing relationships between people and landscape. Striking natural features—forests, boulders, caves, rivers—anchor spiritual and social life (initiations, rites of passage). Rock art marks attachment, records events (wars, displacements), and articulates territorial identity.
Angolan Heritage and the Orbis Africa Rock Art Website
Since 1999, Orbis Africa has developed a strategy to record and understand rock art in northern Angola—building a standardized database and establishing the Orbis Africa Advanced Research Center (OAARC) in 2004. Over sixty local volunteers were trained to gather baseline data across regions for integration into a public archive.
What Should We Record?
Records should capture natural features (fissures, orientation, water flow patterns), rock characteristics (shape, color, texture), and broader contexts (reuse in monuments, standing stones, cairns, walls, mills). Benchmarking condition enables monitoring decay, identifying causes and rates of surface loss, and prioritizing at-risk panels for conservation.
How Should We Record Rock Art?
Because Angolan rock art includes representational and non-representational styles and meanings remain elusive, records must minimize recorder subjectivity. Methods combine preliminary surveys (walkovers, overview sketches, annotated photos), textual recording (standard forms and in-situ drawings), and photography. Extensive oral research explores connections among oral history, proverbs, and symbolic representation.
Recording Rock Art: The Angolan Rock Art Project Process
- Preliminary Survey: Walkover surveys to establish physical/cultural contexts and identify all panels; overview sketches map relationships of panels, topography, and features, with annotated photos.
- Textual Recording: Standardized forms and in-situ drawings (e.g., five sites in Lovo, Madimba and Lukingu-I, Mbanza Kongo).
- Photography: Systematic capture of carvings and settings.
What Is Rock Art in Northern Angola? (Recap)
Rock art across Angola includes human, animal, and object depictions; the north is exceptional for its abstract dominance. Historic rock art appears as landscape/open-air art, funerary art, and “transitory/initiatory” art on smaller stones sometimes reused in later contexts. Orbis Africa has documented ~5,000 carved surfaces in the northwest; many more exist in the south (some c. 7,650 years old).
Research Aims and Methods
Objectives include documenting/analyzing rock art at Tadi dia Lombo, Tadi dia Muingu, and Lovo; investigating historical/cultural contexts and significance for social/religious practices; and understanding rock art’s role in transmitting cultural knowledge and identity. Fieldwork combines photography, sketches, detailed descriptions, and interviews with elders; analysis addresses symbolism, techniques, materials, and social meanings.
Competencies, Skills, and Access
The interdisciplinary team (art history, anthropology, archaeology), fluent in local languages with strong community relationships, is positioned to conduct respectful, rigorous research with local institutions.
Final Product and Dissemination
The project will culminate in a comprehensive monograph on Tadi dia Lombo, Tadi dia Muingu, and Lovo (Nsenzele), of interest to scholars of African art, cultural heritage, and anthropology. Findings will be shared with local communities and cultural institutions to support preservation and promotion of Angola’s heritage.
Summary of Three Case Studies (2023–2024)
Case Study No. 1: Tadi dia Lombo
Near Nzau-Evwa, Tadi dia Lombo is renowned for the unique use of pigments—vivid red and black—and three handprints symbolizing ancestral connection. The cave figures centrally in the village’s founding myth, serving as sanctuary during conflict. Documentation and analysis reveal deep impacts on historical narrative and practice.
Case Study No. 2: Tadi dia Muingu
Within the commune of Tuku, Tadi dia Muingu marks a geological boundary and repository of historical memory. Oral traditions place it within an ancient urban settlement and wartime refuge. Natural barriers (Kongo Yasika and Nkasa plants) enclose the panel, underscoring its protected, sacred character.
Case Study No. 3: Lovo-I
Lovo-I (Madimba) is among Angola’s most prominent archaeological and rock-art sites, integral to Kongo culture and modern history—from Alvaro Buta’s 1913 revolt to independence movements. Its petroglyphs comprise sequences that function like symbolic sentences.
Detailed Case Studies
Tadi dia Lombo
Part of the Tadi dia Mbombe massif (12+ caves/shelters), only Tadi dia Lombo bears rock art; two other caves contain funerary remains. First visited in 2002; further exploration in 2023 documented the site’s integration in the founding myth and refuge history (colonial incursions and civil war). Its standout feature is a red-and-black painting including three red handprints applied by fingers/tools—indexing transformation from physical to spiritual states in Kongo cosmology (red signifies transition, ceremonial power, maturity, renewal).
Tadi dia Muingu
Tuku lies ~16 km from Mbanza Congo (road to Luanda). The rocky massifs Tadi dia Muingu and Tadi dia Mpungi mark communal boundaries. Oral histories portray a mountain-top urban settlement whose caves and hidden paths sheltered people during wars; numerous human remains attest to this. Elders (bankaka), land-owning families (nfumu a nsanda), and chiefs (nfumu a vata) situate Muingu within a chain of urban sites extending to the DRC border. The present commune moved next to the colonial road in 1933 following territorial disputes.
Tadi dia Mpungi’s rock shelter is difficult to access due to Kongo Yasika and Nkasa plants forming a reactive barrier; the painted panel stands like a balcony overlooking the landscape. Ritual protocol: permission from authorities; awakening ancestors via songs, libations (nsamba), and medicines (bilongo); invocation of multiple Isimbi (vital forces). Symbols are read as mambu (semantic clusters) rather than isolated signs.
“Nkumbu ame Simbi kia Mpungi. Ngizilu a mbote ye kiabomte kieno yiluvene. Ngizidi muna kisonga yo kituka. O lusobo yi be diatanga ye vonza. O mono yi Simbi ngizidi ovava muna ku tanina. Kiaki yi fu kiame.”
“My name is Simbi kia Mpungi. I welcome you and greet you. I came to update and strengthen. The transition is inherently dangerous. My name is Simbi, and I am here to protect you. It is tradition.”
Lovo (Nsenzele) / Lovo-I
Lovo-I, in Madimba, is among Angola’s most significant rock-art sites. “Lovo” means “gesture of thanks” in Kikongo, and the site functions as a gateway to cultural-historical narratives. Twenty-eight petroglyphs (≈95% with rock art) are distributed across “Nsenzele” (flat outcrops ~200 m²). The largest petroglyph (64 m × 1.2 m) shows evidence of former exposure (organic deposits 48–57 cm deep). Lovo aligns with Zumbu—a triad of river, forest, and cemetery—enabling rituals (Ndembo, Lembo, Kimpasi) and training of traditional specialists (zinganga), chiefs (Mfumu a Nsanda), and ritual officiants (Yoto, Luziku).
Approach to Lovo-I mirrors funerary practice (nsungilu washing), tomb delineation with vertical stone blades (marking body positions and gender relative to cardinal points), and exaltation of the forest’s spiritual character (hunting and agriculture).
Excavation and cleaning at Lovo-I revealed significant surface damage from erosion, flooding, and reckless burning for crop cultivation, along with vandalism (incised names, partitioning of petroglyph sections). The mixed relationship with local communities—often unaware of engravings’ significance—contributes to neglect and damage.
Significance
Research at Tadi dia Lombo, Tadi dia Muingu, and Lovo illuminates artistic expressions that encode social, cultural, and spiritual practices. The sites provide tangible links to the past and anchor broader debates on African art’s complexity and diversity. Documenting and analyzing these places is essential for awareness, protection, and community engagement—especially in regions shaped by conflict and instability.
Conclusion
The study of the rock art at Tadi dia Lombo, Tadi dia Muingu, and Lovo is essential for understanding their cultural and historical significance. It contributes to the preservation and promotion of Angola’s rich cultural heritage, providing insights into past artistic and cultural practices and enriching the broader field of African art and cultural studies.
Appendix — Lovo-I
Detailed documentation, including in-situ drawings by Sousa Pedro Rodrigues and photographs by Bárbaro Martínez-Ruiz, will be available in 2025. These materials provide a comprehensive overview of nine stones with petroglyphs, captured across multiple visits (latest August 2024).
Orbis Africa Advanced Research Center — Core Research Team
Friar Gabriel Bortolami • Francesca Sanna • Paulo Lutaladio • Pedro Afonso Gomes • Sousa Pedro Rodrigues • Diyaya Zola • Eduardo Jovelino • Francisco da Graça Lidia da Gama Lende • Pedro Cabieto • Calange Ribeiro • Domingos Sebastião
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