The monsters that weren't: Dinosaur and tusked-beast claims in San rock art unravel
For decades, an idea has grown in paleontology that, long before scientists began digging up and reconstructing dinosaur bones, the Indigenous San and Basotho in southern Africa noticed them too, incorporating them into songs, myths and immortalizing them on cave walls. But under closer scrutiny, these claims begin to crumble.
A recent study published in Southern African Humanities by David Witelson of the University of Oxford scrutinizes claims that San and Basotho people of southern Africa depicted dinosaurs and dicynodont-inspired tusked creatures in their rock art. The paper argues that these claims lack supporting evidence and may be rooted in Western scientists imposing their worldview onto Indigenous interpretations without sufficient proof.
The study specifically challenges two prominent cases: one involving an all-consuming dinosaur-like monster and another featuring an ancient dicynodont-inspired tusked creature. Witelson asserts that the first claim likely represents a personified veld fire known as ǁKhwai-hemm, while the second appears to depict a rain animal rather than a tusked creature.
The author emphasizes that there is no concrete evidence supporting the idea that Indigenous San people perceived fossils as mythical monsters or dragons, as some paleontologists have suggested.
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