Rock Art in Makumbe Cave: Disentangling Visual Layers

Abstract Makumbe Cave, located in the Chinamhora Communal Lands in Eastern Mashonaland, Zimbabwe, was designated a national monument in 1949. The shelter housed a rich display of intricate paintings, with one panel reportedly stretching across ten metres of the granite wall. Visitors to the site observed that this particular frieze consisted of a palimpsest of paintings rendered in different styles and painted using different colours. The superimposition of the various layers was interpreted to have chronological significance, which generated local and international interest in the paintings. In 1929, when the paintings were still visible, a research expedition led by Leo Frobenius visited Makumbe to copy the paintings. Today, a build-up of carbon from fires lit within the cave has formed to create the most recent layer in the history of the site, in effect completely hiding the paintings from view. In this article I rely on archival documents and historical copies generated from the early engagements with Makumbe to unveil the paintings and tell their story.