This is the question that everyone asks, but only too often the anwer is that we can't tell.

Some of the paintings are easy to date as they show white settlers and their horses. Horses were introduced into Natal in the 19th century, so these paintings will be less than two centuries old.

Similarly, images of sheep and cattle, brought in by the Khoi herders and black farmers, cannot be older than two thousand years, when these people migrated into what is now South Africa.

At present it's virtually impossible to date rock paintings by radiocarbon. This depends on the presence of carbon for a date to be obtained. Unfortunately, the materials used as the basis for the paintings are inorganic and therefore contain no carbon.
Figures in black paint, some of which consist mainly of charcoal, a carbon rich substance, have been successfully dated. Researchers obtained a date of approximately 500 BP (years before present.)

In a site where people have lived, layers of sand and earth build up. Logically, the bottom layer is the oldest. These layers contain artefacts, organic materials such as bone, plant debris and charcoal from cooking fires. These organic materials can be radiocarbon dated, giving the age of the layer. On rare occasions, flakes or slabs from the painted wall become detached and fall into the layers on the floor. The layer in which they are found can thus give an estimate date. Of course, there is no way knowing how long the painting was on the floor before it fell. This method can give us a minimum age for the painting.

A site on the Cape west coast was found with large chunks from the painted wall in the deposits on the floor. The layer in which these chunks were found was dated to approximately 3500 (BP). This gives us an indication to the minimum age of the art itself.

The oldest date for rock paintings in southern Africa comes from a southern Namibian cave, where painted slabs could be found in deposits that could be dated. These slabs or stones were never part of the cave wall. They varied in size from 10 cm to 30 cm across. Some were placed in graves but others were part of the accumulation of the cave debris. The results of this 'portable art' were astonishing, since they indicated that the paintings were approximately 26000 - 27000 years old.

No other dated rock art even approaching this age have been recorded in southern Africa. All the other dated art is portable art, and these finds all date to the last 10000 years. Sites from this time span are thought to have been created by the ancestors of the Bushmen today.

It is unlikely that any of the paintings preserved in the rock shelters are of great age because cave walls crumble and flake at a fast rate.

Although the tradition of making rock art endured until the late 19th century in some areas, in some areas it did not. Conflict between the Bushmen and the colonists (and in some cases between the Bushmen and the black farmers) - disrupted Bushmen societies in southern Africa and destroyed their traditional ways, languages and skills. The art remains in the areas they once occupied, even though the artists and their communities are long gone.

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