Celebrated as Africa's oldest continuously practiced art form, African rock art depicts humans and animals, and figures combining features of both, called "therianthropes," often associated with shamanistic practices. Scenes show animal herds, hunting activities and humans in everyday life. Hand prints and pictures of giraffes and animals long extinct in Africa can be found in places 50,000 years old.
African rock art divides into "three broad geographical zones" -- southern, central and northern Africa -- according to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. These zones have distinct differences "easily recognizable even to an untrained eye." The southern zone stretches to the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia from the South African Cape. The central zone runs from the Zambia River to just south of the Sahara Desert, and is the least "studied and understood," the museum says. The art of the Sahara comprises the northern zone and fits into four chronological as well as stylistic periods: the Bubaline, Bovidian, Caballine and Camelline. Rock engravings were found specifically from the Bubaline period in this region.
African rock art paintings -- found, according to National Geographic, at more than a million sites across Africa -- depict the way in which ancient Africans viewed and thought of their world. Monochromatic paintings, and paintings of rich varied hues using bright reds, oranges, white and black pigments, depict hunting, animal and human scenes. Polychrome shading gave some paintings a 3-D appearance. In South Africa, scenes show conflicts between European colonists on horses with rifles and African bushmen.
Giraffes figured prominently in African rock art, representing figures thought to have religious significance. Warrior shields, shamans, crocodiles and more are seen in pectroglyphs across the African continent. Many tribes and cultures completed these over several periods, some even into the 19th century. Shamans in many engravings have elaborate headdresses and bone markings on their bodies.