Nyae Conservancy News Today

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On 1 November 2023, as we clicked on an attachment in a mail, we knew it would be devastating news.

The animal footprint carvings you can find in the Doro Nawas Mountains of western Namibia are quite something: the artists have captured the tracks so accurately, they can reveal plenty of useful information about the animals they represent.

Engravings of animal tracks and human footprints appear in numerous traditions of prehistoric rock art around the world and many of these engravings can be found in Namibia. 

Trackers identified different species and also the sex of the animals and humans the rock art engravings were meant to depict.

Archaeologists Unlock Mysteries of Intricate Stone Age Animal Art - Industry Tap

The study of rock art in Namibia's Doro Nawas mountains uncovers diverse motifs, detailed animal track insights

Indigenous trackers could identify the prints’ species, sex and age for 90% of analyzed engravings.

More than 400 footprints across a diverse range of species have been identified in incredible detail for the first time, with researchers enlisting a trio of expert indigenous trackers to help solve the mystery of these 5,000-year-old records.

Imagine writing a how-to guide so accurate it could still be used thousands of years later. That’s exactly what a group of Late Stone Age hunters in modern-day Namibia did with the tracks of the various animals they hunted.